Ex-officer indicted for fabrications found dead at his home

Millis police found Bryan Johnson, 24, who made up claims that was ambushed by gunfire in September, dead in his home at about 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s office confirmed. “No signs of foul play were found at the scene.A former part-time Massachusetts police officer accused of shooting up his own patrol cruiser and calling in a hoax bomb threat has died after apparently committing suicide. Johnson was indicted by a grand jury on Nov.19 on six charges, including calling a bomb threat to a school, misleading a criminal investigation and making a false police report.

The officer, who was hired in June, told cops he was ambushed with gunfire during a shootout, and crashed his police cruiser into a tree and caught fire in September. “There is no gunman at large in or around the town,” MIllis Polcie Sgt. Last week, a Norfolk County grand jury issued six indictments against Johnson, including new charges stemming from a false bomb threat at Millis High School the same day Johnson is alleged to have staged a shootout with a non-existent motorist. William Dwyer said at the press conference in September. “Our main reason for coming out here so quickly was to make sure the public knew they were safe.” According to prosecutors, on Sept. 2, Johnson fired his personal firearm into his own department-issued SUV before telling police that a man in a pickup truck opened fire on his vehicle.

Johnson’s claim forced the community to shelter in place and schools went into lockdown while authorities launched an area-wide manhunt that included about 20 state police troopers and detectives, a helicopter, armored cars and more than 50 heavily armed officers from the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council. Investigators said the young officer later confessed he had shot the cruiser himself three times, gotten into the vehicle, and blacked out before crashing into the trees. Investigators would later determine that Johnson had done the shooting and the story about the driver of the pickup truck was a hoax, prosecutors said. Johnson’s alleged actions shut down the town of Millis, closing schools for a day and triggering a massive search for the alleged shooter by heavily armed police. The alleged incidents happened less than three weeks after Millis selectmen voted unanimously to make Johnson a permanent member of the Millis Police Department.

Johnson continues to enjoy the Constitutional presumption of his innocence, we believe the scope of the conduct alleged here makes Superior Court the appropriate venue,” Norfolk District Attorney Michael W.